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Trip Reports by our Clients:
CANADIAN ROCKIES TRIP, AUG. 2008
by
W.E. "Ted" Guy, Jr.
8/21/08 Thursday: We flew on American Airline 3,500 miles from West Palm Beach to Dallas and Seattle, and then a little twin turbo prop to Victoria, B.C. A very long day! Luckily, Dallas has a very good light rail train between terminals; we barely made the plane to Seattle on time, being the last passengers to board.
Seattle has a somewhat primitive airport, entailing a long, deep, subway ride between terminals with lots of walking. On the gradual descent in to Seattle we passed Mount Rainier just to our left at approximately its peak altitude sticking up through the clouds,
a beautiful snow capped sight. It can even be seen from Victoria, B.C. occasionally, we were told.
Victoria is laid back, no stress, no snow, year round golf and flower growing. A magnificently beautiful small city, about the size Denver was in the 1950s. (300,000?) It is almost like a fairy land. Very clean air and 43 degree surrounding water temperature year round.
We stayed one night (should have planned two or three) in the Fairmont Empress Hotel, which is tops! Vancouver Island, 300 miles long, on which Victoria occupies the Southern part, is absolutely beautiful. Don’t miss it!
I noted that Canadians seem to pay a lot more attention to U.S. goings on and politics than we do to theirs. They look South. You can easily see Mt. Baker’s snow capped U.S. peak from the Victoria area. In the 1860s there was a great debate as to whether British Columbia, or at least Victoria Island, should join the U.S. or Canada. Victoria is the capitol of B.C. but is actually West, not North, of the U.S. And Canadians seemed almost universally polite and helpful. We were outnumbered by Japanese and Chinese tourists, often not so polite.
8/22/08 Friday: In the morning, we walked by the inner harbour and visited Miniature World, a fascinating collection of painstakingly made dioramas and models including operating HO and Z gauge trains, revolutionary, civil, WW I & WW II scenes, the world’s only complete operating saw mill model, an operating circus in town, etc.
In the afternoon, we boarded a bus for a half hour ride North to the ferry to Vancouver itself on the mainland. Vancouverites consider the Strait of Juan de Fuca the Pacific Ocean, and probably resent the fact that the capitol of their Province is on an island in the Pacific Ocean. The ferry is very large, with two vehicle decks and four decks above that. Our bus occupied the very front of it on deck two, and in fact, before we reached the mainland, the front bow doors of the ferry opened and we could have driven right off into the sea.
The voyage was beautiful, with many small and large islands that we threaded through before crossing the wide straight. Many of the islands had small light houses on them. Everyone gets around by boat there, including grocery shopping. The U.S. Cascades Mtns. were visible to the East.
When we got to the mainland ferry terminal, we took an elevator down from deck five to our bus and drove through the drab Fraser River Delta about 45 minutes into Vancouver’s combined bus/train station. There we made a highly efficient transfer with a half hour wait in an outdoor lounge listening to good jazz, attended by uniformly polite attendants everywhere. We boarded the VIA RAIL (Canada’s equivalent to AMTRAK) overnight train to Jasper, Alberta. We opted for the “Silver/Blue” service, first class. Unfortunately, the train left an hour late, so sun set before we saw some of the beautiful Fraser River, although we saw it a few days later on the other train back. In some places it looks like the Rhine in Germany. It was a full 21 car train.
8/23/08 Saturday: Aboard VIA RAIL in the morning, with spectacular mountain and river views from the dome car. Excellent dining car, great lounge car attendant. We arrived in Jasper about noon Mountain time, a very cute village in magnificent mountain surrounded scenery in the valley of the Athabasca River. We took a Brewster provided bus to the Fairmont Lodge, a rustic main lodge and vast series of cabins on a beautiful Glacier blue lake with many ducks. There we had our first disappointing food of the trip, pre-made frozen hamburgers. We rested up from three days travelling. Squirrels and Chipmunks were nearly tame and constantly ran through our outdoor veranda eating area looking for scraps. This is a very impressive resort, much larger than it first appears. The Meadows restaurant was superb!
8/24/08 Sunday: We took a Brewster Coach from Jasper to Banff all day, with frequent sight seeing stops. Richard was our driver/tour guide and was an outstanding raconteur. Highlights were the Columbia ice field in a large ice mobile on giant rubber tires (sis wheel drive) and we got to walk on the very slippery glacier. It was slippery because the air temperature was about 5 degrees Centigrade above freezing, resulting in surface melt. Another highlight was the Fairmont Lake Louise hotel, looking over the beautiful, spectacular brilliant blue glacial lake to an overhanging glacier above. A dazzling view. Many saw tooth mountains and glaciers on this trip! Magnificent scenery all day, and still fine weather.
That evening we arrived at the Fairmont Banff Springs and had a fine dinner in the Grill.
8/25/08 Monday: Richard took us on a Brewster Coach tour of Banff this morning, including a hairy aerial cable car gondola ride to the top of Sulphur Mtn. Later we walked and shopped Banff’s down town, somewhat reminiscent of Breckinridge, CO. We lunched in a good Irish Pub on Wolf St. The only downer was a rude and unhelpful city bus driver who managed to completely mislead me as to the minimal fare required. We visited a very nice small shopping mall. Later, we had an excellent light dinner on the upper level of the Rundle Hall, overlooking the Bow River falls. The rain stooped temporarily and it was a beautiful sight. Marilyn Monroe and Robert Mitchum went over these falls in “River of No Return”, but I understand mannequins were used for the actual raft dropping over the falls.
8/26 &27/08 Tues. & Weds.: Rocky Mountaineer Banff—Kamloops—Vancouver. What a train! Finest kind. The Gold Leaf service (premium) has double deck custom made cars. Upper level 70 seats (only about 35 people in ours) plus a bar, under a full length “dome”. Lower level gift shop, dining tables and galley. Three or four attendants at all times with narration of all the interesting spots and explanations of history. Everything is included in the fare, even alcoholic drinks. The train is fairly slow; I doubt if we ever exceeded 60 mph, and many miles much slower than that. And, they slow to a crawl for the most scenic spots. Over 500 miles through the Rockies, the New Mexico like arid interior, and the Cascades rain forest, always winding through mountains along streams, rivers, canyons, valleys and beautiful lakes. Scenery is alpine at first, descending gradually to arid and then rain forest along the mighty Fraser River. The lake country was beautiful, as was the whole trip.
At the continental divide in Kicking horse Pass we went through two spiral tunnels where long trains loop over or under themselves under mountains, losing or gaining altitude on a 2.2% grade that used to be 4.5% before the tunnels. One was five miles long, and its Eastbound counterpart was nine miles long! Two full days aboard, with an overnight stop at a hotel in Kamloops so you won’t miss any scenery. The first half the trip was on Canadian Pacific track that we hadn’t been on before; the second day was on the Canadian National track (next to the CP along side or across a river) that the VIA RAIL train had travelled up bound at night. This was the only passenger train I’ve been on for years that rarely had to stop for freights; often they stopped for us to go by. I agree with Rocky Mountaineer’s P.R.: “The most spectacular train trip in the world.” And you feel totally pampered as if you were on a private car, with gourmet meals.
8/28/08 Thurs. Vancouver: Another superb Fairmont Hotel. They are five star! Slept late as it was raining all morning, with light drizzle in the afternoon. After lunch we took a narrated “Big Bus” tour (not recommended—recommend the Trolley tour instead) around the City, Granville Is. and to Stanley Park’s rainforest and wonderful superlative aquarium. Don’t miss it! Giant cedar & fir trees so tall and close together you could rarely see their tops. For a number of years I had a 37 ft sailboat made in Vancouver out of 1.5 inch square cedar strips, the finest kind of wood construction: no leaks! Vancouver is a beautiful city, reportedly tops in quality of life, bustling but not rushing like NYC or Chicago, and traffic seemed to move easily except on the outlying freeways during the rush hour. Many waterways, sea planes and boat marinas.
It’s sad to leave this beautiful country, but it will be good to get home at 12:07 AM Saturday (PBIA). Going first class made the nine hours of travel tolerable; I’d hate to ride economy all that time! The Delta flights back were a little better than the American flights out due to the choice of in flight movies and moving map of the flight on the seat back screen ahead of you, and a 400 mile shorter route.. I watched “Indiana Jones” for the first time.
We heartily recommend Accent on Travel accentontravelusa.com, our travel agent specialist in rail tours, and the Brewster tours they arranged.
We had a great time!
W.E. "Ted" Guy, Jr.
Stuart, FL 34997
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